South American leaders convened in Buenos Aires May 4 to cover issues ranging from immigration to regional integration.
The region appears to be turning the page on the economic crisis and welcoming financial recovery, with the World Bank and IMF releasing reports showing positive signs of growth across much of Latin America.
A March 31 UN donor conference sparked pledges of nearly $10 billion to help Haiti rebuild. A recovery commission involving the UN, donor countries, and the Haitian government will oversee rebuilding projects, but concerns about implementation continue.
"Governments, including the United States, should value the OAS as it was intended: a venue for working toward a shared hemispheric agenda. Achieving that worthy objective requires reform of the institution itself," write Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) in The Miami Herald.
As the Rio Group discusses another regional initiative, the future of an earlier one—Banco del Sur—is still unclear.
The prospect of tapping into oil reserves has reignited a decades-old disagreement between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falklands' sovereignty. As a British firm began drilling, Buenos Aires made its case at the UN.
Latin American leaders at a Rio Group summit proposed a new regional bloc that would exclude the United States and Canada. On the sidelines, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and his Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa agreed to a “road map” to improve diplomatic relations.
